Skirt Love

 

"Magenta Purple"

I have fallen in love with the skirts of Anna Konya.  She has been designing her gorgeous gypsy-inspired clothing since the '60's and they have become real collectors items in the States.

.

"Sedona Sunset"

They're made up of metres and metres of (mostly) cotton fabric and the colours are "bent" with  metres and metres of ribbon.  The waist is elasticised and there are apparently voluminous pockets hidden in the folds, so they are practical pieces that are meant to be worn every day.

There are gyspy shirts to match, too.

With the US Dollar so low at the moment, it's all very tempting, but I think I will have to wait and make a special birthday gift request!

illy & Mojo were doing a bit of "formation sleeping" in front of the fire tonight.  Purrfect!

Pandora Beads

You know that I am in love with glass beads and jewellery, and I'm often moved to make myself a little something!

Years ago the Toy Boy gave me a Pandora bracelet and I've mucked around with it for ages and I think I've finally found a style that suits me.

I've made a series of what are known as "white heart" beads - opaque white glass overlaid with bright transparent colours in the chakra colours. These beads have the big hole that is needed to go over the thick snake chain of the Pandora style bracelets - there are lots of brands of these, Troll beads and Love Links are the ones that come immediately to my mind.

I haven't cored my beads with silver - there shouldn't be a need with handmade glass beads that are properly annealed, so they move around the sections within the bracelet and tap together in a very satisfying way!

I have always made a few of these beads - they're not on the website, but here's a photo of the selection I have in the studio at the moment.  If something there interests you, just drop me a line - they are NZ$25 each.

Don't you think that silver charms between the glass beads would look wonderful? Perhaps I will have to start dropping hints!

For those of you in New Zealand, stay warm this mid winter weekend - there's snow on the hills and it's bitterly cold here!

illy and Mojo took one look at the morning and decided to stay by the fire!

The Inspirational Work of Melissa Schmidt

I've recently become aware of the work of glass bead artist Melissa Schmidt.

 She makes tiny glass bubbles on the lamp from borosilicate or pyrex style glass.  These first ones have an etched surface - something that is topical for me at the moment - I'm playing with etching a new series, but more of that later...

In these beads, which she initially developed as a birthday gift for her mother, she has inserted teeny tiny photographs, then sealed the bubble and hung it from a necklace...isn't it incredible?

She takes commissions and you can give her the photos that you would like to have added to your personalized piece.
A part of me wants to know the "how is it done?" bit, but another part of me just wants to sit back and enjoy the beautiful work!

Of course, the ones with the flowers in are my favourites!  But you could probably guess that!

Don't forget to visit the JULY WEBSITE SALE before it's too late!

Glitz Art Glass Annual Website Sale and Newsletter

Brrrr….!!!!  It’s cold!  It was just 6 degrees Celcius in the workroom this morning!  It must be midwinter, and I remember this time last year I had my first    Website Sale.  It was so good that I thought that I should turn it into a tradition and make it my…

Annual Website Sale

So let’s grab a coffee, turn on the heaters and the kiln, turn up the jazz and get into it!

So just like last year, I have included a promotion code in this newsletter for you to use to receive 20% off all items on the website (excluding postage).

If you enter BUYBEADS into the coupon code box then follow the prompts, you will receive 20% discount on any item on the site, excluding postage.

Yes, that’s right – until the end of July, if you go onto the website and order any item, then enter the promotion code as you checkout, you will receive a 20% discount.

This offer is only open to people who have given me their email address and have signed up for my newsletter, so if you tell your friends about this, they must first register their email address, which they can easily do via my website www.glitz.co.nz

Shows

Wow!  What a busy year this has been! 

The beads and toys (Golden Bay Toys, my husband, Murray’s colourful handmade wooden pull along toys) have covered quite a lot of the country!

The best laid plans of mice and men went awry last year with lots of interference from Mother Nature!

We were all prepared, packed and ready for the Dunkley’s Great New Zealand Craft Show South Island run when the first of the Christchurch earthquakes struck on September 4^th.  Although our venue was virtually undamaged, the ongoing aftershocks meant that the safety of the Addington Raceway could not be guaranteed, so the Dunkleys reluctantly decided to cancel the event.  Of course, we all know how this awful year has progressed for Christchurch, and our hearts go out to everyone who has been impacted by the quakes.

However, to continue my story, we carried on and had a wonderful show in Dunedin (and I have to say that it was a relief to get out of a very wobbly Christchurch), even though a massive southerly storm hit and the weather was atrocious. In fact, while we were working in Dunedin the snow build-up on the fabulous Stadium Southland, the venue for our Invercargill show, caused the whole roof there to collapse!  Fortunately there was no loss of life, and we were very aware that it would have been a very different story if we had been in the middle of the show at the time of the collapse!  

We managed to sneak through to Invercargill during a small break in the weather, and carried on to have a great show in the Velodrome at Stadium Southland – right beside the ruin of the main stadium – a very sobering experience.

We came home from that trip appreciating that our home and workplaces were intact and our family safe.

To finish the season we went to the gorgeous Christmas Country Fete in Culverden – a major and very stylish South Island event, had our first year at Hunters Garden Marlborough in Blenheim (a beautiful day out, and if you’re a gardener, a visual feast!), the Thorndon Fair in Wellington – a very different city event – fun and frantic, and Martinborough Fairs in February and March.

Since then we have made some major changes to the way we work and have opened up a small workroom and shop in Commercial Street, Takaka, right in the CBD!

While it was a major wrench to leave our lovely studios at home, it makes sense to work and sell from a more easily accessible spot, and we have found the transition from working at home to going out to work interesting and quite positive both professionally and personally.  We spend more time chatting with friends’ old and new and drinking coffee, but on the other hand we are managing to take a little time out and the garden is responding to this attention.  We’re both enjoying having our work permanently displayed here, too.

So this has meant the end of the Nelson Market stall for me, but Murray still goes over with the toys.  That’s meant a huge change of lifestyle for me!  I really miss the buzz of the market, but the very early starts and long days are something I gave away very easily!

We are booked to do the Dunkley’s Great New Zealand Craft Show’s South Island run again this year.  It’s a bit earlier than usual because of that Rugby competition,…and we’d like Mother Nature to cooperate this year, if possible!

Christchurch Show at Addington Raceway August 19^th – 21st,

Dunedin  Show  at the Edgar Centre August 26^th – 29th, and the

Invercargill Show  at ILT Velodrome September 2^nd – 4^th.

If you would like a discount coupon for your entry fee, please let me know and I’ll get one to you.

You can contact me at lesley@glitz.co.nz or through the address below.

I am also booked in for the Thorndon Fair in Wellington on Sunday 4^th December in my usual spot, though that feels quite a long way off right now.

Happy Shopping!